For Appearance's Sake
Chapter 8
By Teala373
In our last chapter: The team deduces that Rupert Thorn is missing and that someone else is running his operations. Dick tells Bruce he wants Barbara back, but she overhears the conversation and later tells Bruce how conflicted she is. While Bruce goes out to investigate a case, Dick is visited by Veronica Vreeland. Veronica clues him in on Bruce and Barbara's relationship and asks him to help her break them up.
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It didn't take Dick long to hack into the Gotham Gazette's servers and see what socialite pictures they had on file. There was an entire directory dedicated to Bruce with folders divided by date, place, and category. One of the category folders was labeled "BarbaraGordon". Opening it, Dick was angered to see the dozens of pictures of a very happy couple enjoying several upon several nights out. He slammed his hand on the desk before he rose and began stalking towards the door. He was millimeters from grasping the doorknob when he stopped suddenly.
He stepped back and felt dizzy. His mind had been spinning very fast in one direction, then suddenly, it shifted gears and began spinning in the opposite direction. He staggered towards a chair and sat down.
Before he had decided to go back to Gotham and start over again with Bruce and Barbara, he had resolved to try and control his emotions. His often irrational outbursts had started driving a wedge between himself and Barbara shortly before he left. She had always been there for him and supported him. She never questioned him for any other reason then to try and help him. She had been his everything, and he had taken her for granted. He had been completely selfish and consumed by his anger and jealousy.
He had wanted things to be different this time. He wanted to do things right. He loved Barbara, he always had, and he had many beautiful memories of the two of them together.
Sighing, he tried to clear is head and think straight, but thoughts of Bruce and Barbara together were threatening to let his anger take control. He had allowed jealousy to consume him when he was Robin. He disillusioned himself into thinking that Bruce was forcing him to stay in his shadow, when the truth was that Bruce was always trying to protect him. Old habits die hard, and it was hard now for Dick to be rationale and not let old wounds reopen.
He took several deep breaths and tried to clear his head. Regardless of his conflict, he couldn't just fly hot headed into Gotham. This time, he was going to do things right. He was very serious about Barbara and he was going to prove it to her.
Slipping out of the building, he headed back out into the night. He needed to cool down before he saw either Bruce or Barbara again.
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Batman stood on the roof of Wayne Tower, over 1600 feet above Broad Street, overlooking the city. The city was quiet; in fact, it had been quiet for several weeks. The last major costumed villain he had faced had been put in Arkham two months ago. Since then, it had just been petty robberies and attempted assault. Not that those weren't important crimes to stop, but the larger, more dangerous criminals had been quiet. They weren't all locked away. Many of them had been released, claiming rehabilitation. He knew from experience that not everyone that got out of Arkham went on to live a just and moral life. Something was brewing beneath the city, and he needed to find out what it was.
He paused suddenly, the inky blue of the sky and rushing swirl of the traffic below fading into oblivion as his mind wandered. He was angry with himself to taste the forbidden freedom of love and happiness that he secretly yearned for and secretly suppressed. He chastised himself for not knowing better. He had a job to do, a city to protect. Now was not the time to be selfish. Now was not the time to further destroy the fragile, piece-mail family that he secretly held so dear to his heart.
He bit down hard on the inside of his lip, bringing the skyline and city noises back to his senses in an almost dizzying rush. He was the Dark Knight for a reason, and with that came sacrifice… He had to let Barbara go…
Preparing a jump line, he headed for Jason Bard's apartment. As he made the death-defying dive off of his own company's tower, and then swooped above the city streets up to his next rooftop, a tiny voice began softly chanting in the back of his brain. By the time he reached the window ledge of Bard's apartment, it was practically screaming.
'… I can't… I can't let her go…'
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Barbara hadn't stayed on the couch long after Bruce left. Something about the information she had procured from Ted Kord's computer was bothering her. Kord had deduced that Thorn's operations had been usurped by a company called Two Vines. All research showed the company to be squeaky clean, which made her highly suspicious.
Bruce was planning on investigating Bard again, but Barbara wanted to take a look at Kord's office to see what other information she could glean. She was partially embarrassed that she constantly had to 'relax' because of being upset over personal situations. She had prided herself on not being frail and overly emotional, but she felt that she had done nothing more than act like one of those silly girls in a romance novel since she and Bruce decided to be a real couple.
It didn't take her long to get dressed and head over to the Kord, Inc. Gotham office, three aspirins swirling in her stomach. There was something minor they were overlooking, and headache or not, she was going to find it. She couldn't just sit around the manor with her mind reeling and her heart aching. She had decided that for whatever it was she felt for Dick Grayson, he had caused enough turmoil in her life, and she wasn't going to let this situation ruin her case.
"I am an idiot!" she muttered as she stared at a painting in Ted Kord's large office that was clearly on hinges. She checked for security before breaking the lock that allowed it to swing away from the wall, revealing a large safe door.
"Bingo!"
Quickly disabling the safe lock, she found the door led her through a secret tunnel that eventually brought her to an underground lair beneath the parking lot of the building, a building owned by Ted Kord. The main room was filled with advanced technology, including a flying aircraft that distinctly belonged to the Blue Beetle.
"Gothcha," Batgirl whispered to herself as she surveyed how to get around the elaborate security. Though Ted Kord was something of a technological guru, Batgirl had been trained by the best and soon found herself hacked into his main computer terminal and accessing the files he had amassed on Rupert Thorn's gang. Opening up her small, portable computer, she logged into the bat computer and began running queries against all the information in the files. She also ran a few separate queries on a few hunches she was having.
There had been something eerie about the quiet of super villains in the city and the twisted complications of this case that wasn't adding up neatly. She was determined to leave no stone unturned.
Her passionate longings for Bruce and turmoil over Dick would have to wait.
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Nightwing crouched on the rooftop of a nearby building and observed the Thorn operatives working out of a recently purchased apartment building.
After his visit from Veronica Vreeland, he wanted nothing more than to go charging into Wayne Manor. As much as he wanted to, he knew it was the wrong move and would only drive a further wedge between himself and Barbara.
He began formulating a plan as he watched another car pull up to the building, but quickly abandoned it when he saw who climbed out of the car. He began stealthily making his way into the building and securing surveillance equipment.
The building was mostly empty and appeared to be under renovation. The men he had seen coming and going appeared to be working on legitimate cosmetic construction.
"I appreciate you guys working after your shifts at Westford down here," Roland Desmond, the former criminal known as Blockbuster, that claimed to be rehabilitated, said as he walked into a room where three men were installing kitchen cabinets.
"We just appreciate you throwing us former thugs some extra work," one of the men commented as he screwed a hinge to a cabinet door. "I guess what they say is true: when you go legit, you have to work twice as hard."
The men shared a round of chuckles before Roland prepared to leave. "I'm going to check on the furnace installation. I think this will be one of the better apartment buildings on this side of Bludhaven when we're through," he concluded. "Don't forget to take a meal break."
Nightwing then followed Rolland down to the back of the building where three large delivery trucks were being unloaded.
"We got the last of the cabinets, the Kohler sinks, molding, toe kicks and all new hardware, Mr. Desmond," one of the truck drivers called out as he helped the other workers unload the trucks.
Rolland nodded. "Excellent. I was just on my way to check the furnace installation. Call me if you need anything."
The basement also appeared to be on the level as workers from Thorn's operations were installing a furnace, hot water tank and dehumidifier in the basement. There were also several men building locked storage units in another part of the basement.
Heading back to the unloading trucks, Nightwing began inspecting the boxes, but they were truly filled with what the truck driver called out. Shrugging, he took off to check the Bludhaven pier and make sure there wasn't anything he was missing.
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Batman hadn't found much in Jason Bard's apartment. His notes on the investigation showed that he was unable to locate the man who shot him. Marko Ruggeri was an underboss for Thorn and often served as his right hand man. Bard hadn't seen or heard anything on either Ruggeri or Thorn since he began working for the Thorn front business: Westford.
His notes also showed that Thorn's operations were slowly being bought up by a company called Two Vines and were going legit. Two Vines was a renovation company that was buying run down buildings, fixing them up, then selling them. They used Montague shipping to bring in their supplies, and had made several purchases from both Kord, Inc and Wayne Tech.
Unable to find anything else of value, Batman decided to do a standard patrol before heading back to the cave to complete more research on the bat computer.
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Batgirl observed Oswald Cobblepot's Iceburg Lounge carefully. The security was surprisngly light. Though Cobblepot, the super villain once know as The Penguin, had long since gone legit, he usually kept heavy guard around all entrances to keep his old acquaintances, and any other undesirables, at bay.
A quick surviellance yeilded an elaborate alarm system had been set and a couple of guards were placed inside. Easily slipping inside the main office, she began looking through his records. In accordance with his probation, Cobblepot had to keep detailed records of his whereabouts. When his probation officer signed off on the paper record, a copy was given to him. Both Batman and Batgirl, in the regular monthly observation of rehibilitated criminals, knew where these copies were kept, and Batgirl wasted no time in procurring them.
According to the records, Cobblepot had hardly been to the Lounge, which also housed his apartment above the office, claiming to be on vacation. He had been to the lounge on a few occasions to oversee a few specific food shipments. Pulling out the business records, Batgirl saw that the deliveries were triple what was normal for his business. Though it was heavily concealed, Batgirl deduced through the records that the excess was shipped back out through rented trucks and sent to several locations within Gotham and Bludhaven. She recorded the information and the supposed whereabouts of Oswald Cobblepot's vacation spot.
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The warehouse on the Bludhaven docks where Blockbuster's shipments were coming in yeilded no incriminating evidence. If anything, the records and boxes inside only served to prove the new squeaky-clean life that Rolland Desmond was leading.
Nightwing wasn't buying it.
Though Desmond had been relatively quiet the last several months, he had a strong lust for power that was unlikely to be slaked. Though Nightwing had gathered from various documents that Roland was organizing renovations only to sell the finished buildings off, that was only material power. The protector of Bludhaven knew from experience there was more than material power the underworld lord thristed for.
Shooting a jump line, he headed towards other known dwellings of Roland Desmond and those that worked for him. He hoped to find more answers on Rupert Thorn and this new found business venture.
He ran, jumped, dove, flipped and flew across the rooftops. He engaged in more acrobatics than need be, but it barely reduced his timing. Batman had always chided him for such actions, teaching him that it was foolish to do more than need be as it decreased time and energy. But, Dick had been born into the world of acrobatics and had much more energy than the average person. He had grown to know Bludhaven as well as he knew Gotham.
There were times when he could close his eyes and swiftly move across the skyline with the shadows of the night. When he did this, in his mind, he was no longer in Bludhaven, or Gotham, he was flying close to the red and gold canvas rooftops on a silver bar. When he would realease the bar, he was the most free in all the world. The hand he would grasp of the person waiting for him on the second bar was often his mother's or father's, but as of late, it was Barbara's hand. She would be hanging off the second silver bar, smiling at him, looking deep into his eyes with her sparkling ones. They would swing until enough momentum was built for them both to fly together. It gave him a feeling of such wholness and beauty, that he could barely describe it's greatness. When they would stand upon the tiny landing high above the cheering crowds, he would always spot Bruce and Alfred smiling up at them from the bleachers.
He opened his eyes as he reached his destination. There was a tight constriction is his throat and his eyes stung. He had loved Barbara from the very minute he had ever laid eyes on her. Bruce had tried to take away the pain of his parents' death, but he had only stopped him from going mad with grief. It was Barbara that took away his pain. It was Barbara that calmed the irrational and emotional nature that threatened to overtake him. It was Barbara that healed his fractured soul.
It was Barbara that he loved.
As he opened the skylight to one of the many apartments that Roland kept, he wondered what would become of him if he could not right that great wrong he had done. He had been in misery without her when he first left, but he knew he needed the time to heal and to mature before he could fully commit himself to her. He couldn't believe it was too late, for he knew there was little that would keep him going without her… even justice and vengence.
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After a long patrol, Batman took another quick sweep of the city, intent on finding the whereabouts of Jason Bard. It was two o'clock in the morning and Bard was no where to be found. Nothing indicated that he had gone out of town or was staying somewhere else.
Climbing into the batmobile, he logged onto the computer. Checking recent log in activity, he tried to gage if Barbara had finished her rest and was conducting research in the cave. His jaw clenched as her log in displayed sporadic remote activity and her GPS showed her on the Northwest side of the city.
"Batgirl, come in," he practically growled over the com link.
A soft chuckle floated through his earpiece. "I was wondering how long it would take you to find me."
"I thought you were staying in."
"I rested and now I'm continuing to investigate. I have more information, but I also have several puzzle pieces that go nowhere. I thought before I got home I would do a patrol run. It's been a while since we've checked on the nine."
'The nine' was a reference they used for Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Two-Face, Mad Hatter, The Penguin, the Riddler, Killer Croc, Clayface and Firefly. They were nine of the most dangerous criminals in Gotham's history that had been released on parole from arkham Asylum. The Joker was now a permanent resident of Arkham as he was too dangerous to ever be released back into society. Bane was rumored to be somewhere in South America laying low. Scarecrow had died in Arkham after too much exposure to his own toxins, and Catwoman was now a prominent memeber of Gotham society as a well respected conservationist and animal rights activist. She was no longer on parole.
"I've already checked in on Penguin, Two-Face and Mad Hatter," Batgirl continued.
"Pamela is visiting the rain forrest in Brazil to study the flora. Harley went with her as an assistant."
Batgirl rolled her eyes. "That should be interesting."
"It keeps her out of trouble."
She gave a small laugh. "I guess something has to."
"I'm closer to Croc and Firefly. Check Riddler and Clayface, then meet me back after a final sweep."
There was a slight pause. "Are you mad?"
Another pause. "No."
She sighed. "I was too restless. Something about this case is really bothering me. I have a hunch, but… I know how you hate hunches, so I went out looking for facts."
A tight sigh came over the com link. "What's your hunch?"
She knew it was another surrender into him accepting her more as a partner. She smiled to herself, happy that he trusted her. "I think the nine are up to something and trying to cover their tracks, making everything look peachy-keen. I think they might be tied into this whole mess."
"Any proof?"
"Nothing except a whole bunch of fishy coincidences."
"We'll put all our information together when we meet back." He was careful not to say 'cave' incase any of their conversation was overheard. Though it was unlikely due to their ability to detect another presence and the sophistication of the security on the com links, they always exercised caution. "Check in every fifteen minutes."
She gave an afirmation before heading to her present target. When she first started officially working together with Batman, she had thought the fifteen minute check in rule was a little over-zealous, especially when her assignments and investigations during the times they were separated took an hour at least. However, she had come to learn that it was, in fact, a very sound rule. It had saved her life on more than one occasion.
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AN: Okay, so this is how I got "over 1600 feet" for how high up Batman was on the top of Wayne Tower: I looked up the Sears Tower, which is the one of the tallest skyscrapers. It is 110 floors and 1454 feet tall. I decided to make Wayne Towers 125 floors. 1454 feet divided by 110 floors comes to 11.4 feet per floor. The difference between 125 and 110 is 15. 15 times 11.4 equals 171. Add 1454 and 171, and you get over 1600 feet. Ta da! Considering I am the absolute worst in math, I was quite proud of myself for coming up with this (yeah, I know… it's sad…).